Killer #1 in India

1030 hrs, 10 Jun 13 ( War room Wicfy) Amidst heated discussion on product scoping, the phone rang. She picked it up. The voice on the other side said – “My father had an heart attack this morning. I tried to rush him to hospital. There was heavy rush hour traffic. By the time we reached the hospital, he had breathed his last. Please come, I have no relatives in this city“. His father was 71, had woken up that day feeling fit, he had done 45 minutes of exercise and suddenly had this heart attack. I have off late heard of many , “Perfect in the morning, dead by noon ” incidents

Why heart attack is becoming such a silent killer in our country?

I read through a lot of articles and this is the jest :

Cooking medium : We consume a lot more oil and ghee than other racial types. Against a recommended 0.5kg/ person per month i.e 2.5 kg of of cooking medium for a family of 5 we consume upto 7.5 kg ( 3.5 kg Ghee and 4 kg oil )

Profusion of junk food : Dominoes, MacD , Faasos or butter chicken they all are bombs of cholestrol bursting inside our bodies. MacD product in fact have some of the highest sodium content directly linked to heart attacks.

Small coronary arteries : Reputed Dr Devi Shetty says the arteries of Indians in 30 to 40 % shorter than Caucasians or Europeans which make it more susceptible to blockages . Not only this, it leads to a lot of inconvenience while operating on them.

Bada dil waale log (Higher heart age) : Normally a 31 yr old Indian has a heart which is 38 year old , hence we as Indians are more prone to heart ailments than our Western counterparts.

Heart is in your hand

What are the things we can do to reduce our chances of heart disease ?

The following practical things :

Reduce the quantity of cooking medium : Don’t buy more than 2 kg of oil and 1 kg of ghee in your monthly ration for a family of five. Also rotate the kind of oil used every month. Paying 2x for Saffola wont take care of your heart. Its one big marketing lie. Rotate oils. Sunflower -> Groundnut-> Mustard -> Soyabean or others. This prevents on kind of cholestrol getting deposited in arteries. Same with Ghee alternate between cow , buffalo and others if available. Read about Saffola fraud here.

Reduce eating outside to once a fortnight : Ration eating Pizzas, burgers, fried chicken , outside to every alternate week and stick to it. Not only it keeps you in good health but also keeps your sundry expenses to minimum.

Take to exercising regularly and sustainably : All these Gym memberships and jogging things become monotonous after a few weeks and are not sustainable. However if you buy a good cycle, the following are the benefits :

Non impact : Its non impact and kinder on your knees and joints hence less injuries or stress

Fresh air : A 30 min cycling easily takes you to 10- 15 km loop which gives you a lot of fresh air and helps you kick out mononotony.

Socializing : Socializing over cycling is far more easier than over jogging. I recently cycled 61 km ( in total on Sunday) with a new friend and it didn’t take me too long to prepare. Jogging for even 3 km will take you months to prepare.

Cool technologies : Cycles have improved in leaps and bounds in the recent years. They have become lighter, the gears have become more advanced , the tracking applications work on GPS . Over all cycling even alone gives you a good experience by audio commentary on your trip

You will use it often : No more you will take out your car for going half a km or 1 km. These small errands will all be taken on cycles and these will make you fitter. You will save your money and also save the environment. Evidences show that once you pick it up, you will do it for rest of your life.

If you wish to buy a great cycle for yourself and want some advise on what to buy , how much to pay for it and from where to buy you can post a comment. You can also explore our section on fitness equipments:

Comments

comments

About Purose

Arun Purohit is an entrepreneur and CEO of wicfy.com. He holds a masters degree in software systems from BITS PILANI and started his professional career in 1998 . In his 15 years career he has juggled multiple roles from manufacturing to missiles, from CAD to Web . He now works on product design, building the organization. His spare time is spent coaching kids on Chess, Boxing and playing squash or trekking hills near Pune